


The Tale of Stygg and Fenrir

by IShipThem



Series: The Laws of Thermodynamics [2]
Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: companion fic for my crossover series, pet!fic, you need to have read it to understand
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-12
Updated: 2013-05-12
Packaged: 2017-12-11 14:58:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/800006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IShipThem/pseuds/IShipThem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When you were the ugliest kitten in your litter, and humans had mistreated you your whole life, it was only expected you'd be mistrustful of them, even hateful and spiteful. Stygg was no exception to the rule, hating humans on principle, retaliating before they could hurt her. All humans, except for one. The little dark-haired girl who'd protected her from the rain.</p>
<p>On the contrary, if you had been loved by a human ever since you were a little puppy, you'd obviously be ready to protect and love them - and yet Fenrir did not expect to love his human this way. His human who was barely more than a puppy, and yet was as brave as any pack leader. </p>
<p>The tales of Loki Laufeyson's last family members alive - the two pets she saved from the streets.</p>
<p>(Companion ficlet for my Avengers/PMMM crossover A Hundred Times Over. Can be read after chapter 9)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tale of Stygg and Fenrir

#### The Tale of Stygg.

Stygg had been the youngest kitty in her litter. They were born in a back alley, next to the blackened wall of a restaurant, whose fumes kept them warm and slightly stinky. Stygg’s mom was the grayest of them all, and she was old. This was going to be her last litter.

Stygg was the most crumpled, wrinkled, squeezed cat of them all. Her siblings weren’t a thing of beauty, either. One of them had fur that was far too grey and too knotty. Another one had a face so smashed in, it was completely flat. Yet another one had tiny, stubbly legs and slightly crossed eyes. One had a tail that looked like an old duster and a chronic fur ball problem. Stygg, however, was all of these things combined, all wrapped up in a hissy ball of ill-temper and fangs.

The first time Stygg was held by a Touchy, she clawed and bit him until it unceremoniously dropped her, exclaiming “damned ugly cat!” Stygg _hated_ Touchies. Other cats had different names for them - Clawless, Pink-Furred and Two-Legged - but Stygg preferred Touchy, for that was what pissed her off the most. They _grabbed_ you the wrong way and rubbed their paws on that sensitive spot right behind her left ear where it hurt the most. Stygg hated humans.

And for what reason did so many of them repeated that word – Stygg – when passing by them? With time, the cat came to think this ought to be her name in Touchy Language.

She could not remember it very well, when a Touchy first tried to harm her. She remembered cold, water, and suffocating. It was dark and confusing. Touchies hurt you – that was the lesson she’d learned.

Then, a few days after Stygg’s mother stopped milking them, it begun to pour. It was the first time it rained ever since they had been born, and at the time, her mother was distracted, not noticing when Stygg wondered off. She got lost from her siblings and wobbled away on unsure legs, fessing up with anger at this new annoying thing that also made her ears hurt. _Don’t like it!_ She thought, throwing herself on her back and clawing at the little wet cold thingies.

And then they stopped. Just like that. Stygg hissed, satisfied and smut.

“That is not the most efficient way of keeping dry,” said someone, in a Touchy voice in Touchy Language, too close and too high. The higher the voices were, the more likely they’d try to grab her. Stygg hissed again, this time in anger, threatening. The Touchy made the weirdest noise – it sounded as if it was gasping for breath.

“You are really brave, aren’t you? A really brave little missus.” the Touchy said, its voice a mystery to Stygg. It sounded different than other Touchies yelling “stygg!” Why?

“Loki, step away from that cat, it’s infested!” 

“But _Inga!_ She’s just a poor kitty! Look at her, all alone and scared.” 

“I don’t think that is a kitty. It smells sour.”

“What would _you_ smell like if you were covered in mud and fur on a rainy day, Tora? She smells no worse than your gym socks.”

“Loki, honey, you really shouldn’t touch that cat…”

“Nonsense! She will not give me diseases if I hold her for five minutes.”

Hands tried to pick her up. Stygg hissed and wriggled around, biting down the first warm thing she could find.

“LOKI!”

“Calm _down_ , Inga, she’s just scared. She hasn’t hurt me.”

Stygg tried her best to open her eyes. There was a Touchy face hovering above her. She had never seen one from so close. It had big green eyes with strange, rounded pupils. A mass of black fur fell around it – Stygg liked it because it reminded her of nice cat fur – and it was pale, with a pink muzzle and no fangs. Weird! They didn’t have fangs! The touchy moved her around - ah, gently, gently, like her mom, not touching her sore ears - and pressed her against its chest. Its heart beat steadily. It smelled of dust, meat and of Touchy. Stygg meowed, and the cold begun going away steadily. 

Touchies hurt you. But it was so cold, and she was so tired, and this Touchy was warm and squishy…

“You are such a brave warrior. Yes, you are. Brave and fierce.” The heat grew even warmer, as she was enveloped and nestled. The wind stopped, the water did not drop anymore. Even the voice stopped bothering her so. “Do not worry, I will take care of you.”

“Loki, that cat has _diseases…_ and you’re muddying your clothes.”

“I think she has an ear infection. Oh, you poor baby. It’s all red and icky. I bet it hurt a lot, didn’t it? There, there.”

“Sister, I believe you are either blind - or crazy. That thing is heinous! “

“Don’t talk of Bitteline like that!”

“You already _named_ it?! Oh, Loki…”

Stygg named that particular one Touchy Black, because she was the only one in the new place, smelling of too many things and too many Touchies, that had black fur.

There were many new places, and many new rules, and many strange things that frightened her. Most of all, she was frightened of Touchy Black, who made her ears hurt, but that never did anything else – that tried to clean her, the way she remembered Mother doing, who gave her food many times a day and whose voice was slowly becoming less hateful… 

“Loki, my love, it’s the third time she’s bitten you! Let me apply the medicine…”

“No, mother. It’s normal for her to bite - it must be _hurting.”_

She bit hard, and expected to be dropped and yelled at, but it never happened. She let go slowly once the hand in her ears went away and was carefully deposited in a warm, fuzzy surface. No one yelled and soon everything stopped hurting.

In a few days her ears stopped hurting completely. 

Afterwards, Touchy Black never, ever hurt her anymore. And Stygg found out that if she mewed the right way, or pawed that strange red, round, hollowed-out thing, she was given food. She was still scarred, and she bit, clawed, and run, but nothing bad happened because of it.

“Loki, this is the fourth time you feed her in the past hour…”

“But dad! She’s a street kitten - she’s underweight!”

So maybe - MAYBE - the Black Touchy was slightly less bad then the others. Carefully, she began getting closer to the Touchy, wearily. It was weird – Touchy Black barely behaved like a Touchy. She moved very slowly and not much at all, and her hands were gentle, sometimes making her purr. She was always warm and often fed her, and if sometimes Stygg didn’t want to be with her, she didn’t pursue her.

“Is your foot not asleep, sister?”

“It is, but if I move, it’ll bother Bitelline.”

By the time she realized that strange Touchy Word – Bitelline, or Bibi – meant _her_ , Stygg also realized another thing.

Stygg loved her Touchy. 

And she was touchy – she carried Stygg around over her shoulder for hours and curled around her and spoke in a high voice. Sometimes, she became impossibly fed up with her. But her Touchy never hurt her. Her Touchy warmed her and fed her and even, yes, her Touchy loved her.

Bibi loved her Human.

Of course Bibi wouldn’t ever forget her.

“I think we have to go now, Bibi.”

Never.

#### The Tale of Fenrir

Fenrir had had a human before Loki. 

He never knew his name, but the man took care of Fenrir before he was named Fenrir, when he was the only puppy to survive among his brothers and sisters. His mother had been ill, and the pup lay next to her for a long time, whimpering, until the human came along. He was sour-smelling and couldn’t provide much food, and his hands trembled, but they were always gentle and filled with good intent. 

Fenrir might have stuck with his human forever if one day he hadn’t gotten in a fight with another dog, much bigger and much older than him, that would’ve killed him in the spot…

…weren’t for Loki.

“Cowardly dog. Attacking a little puppy for one meek meat ball. Just shameful. Hey… hello there.”

Fenrir growled, suspicious and recoiled against the trash can. He was very cold that day and his fresh wounds hurt terribly. Thankfully, the human in front of him wasn’t one of the biggest or scariest – it was tiny and didn’t look that sure in its feet. It was crouching in front of him, a hand stretched towards him, and patiently waited.

“I won’t hurt you,” it said, lowly. “I swear I won’t hurt you.”

Slowly, advancing glued to the ground, Fenrir sniffed the fingers. Even slower, he allowed Loki to pet him behind the ears. The girl waited every new step with unending patience, until Fenrir finally curled between her legs and tried to bask on her body heat.

“You must be so cold,” commented Loki, very carefully and gently raising him from the ground.

She minded his injuries, slowly deposited the puppy in her legs, and covered him with her sweater. Her skin was warm, the blood flowing just underneath it. Fenrir put his nose in her neck and whined happily, it felt so good. The girl giggled.

“You almost remind me of someone,” she commented, scratching behind his ear. Just as he settled comfortably, content to never, ever move again from this spot, the tiny human put a hand on the back of his neck.  
It became warmer. Slowly, Fenrir stopped feeling his injuries – all the pain melted away. He wriggled, searching for the cuts and bites, but there was nothing, anywhere. And, somehow, he knew it had been thanks to this new, warm human. He begun licking her ear, excitedly. “Hey, stop it! I get it!” she said, giggling harder, losing her balance and falling on her butt with him still in her lap. “I just healed you, you don’t need to look so happy!”

The girl hugged him in an attempt to make him stop wriggling, but they just ended up even more tangled. It didn’t help he was still inside her sweater, especially not when his tail got wrapped in it, too. She was laughing very hard, now, the vibrations in her chest making it impossible for him to find balance.

“Hey! Ey, ey, ey, you crazy dog! Get off from her!” called a familiar voice. Fenrir’s ears spiked up, and he begun wriggling anew, trying to get back to the ground. Two pairs of hands finally helped him out.

The dog run towards his human – he begun barking and jumping around at his feet. “Oy, you, stop this! ‘m sorry, girl, he’s a big doofus. He hurt you?”

“No, I’m all right.” replied the tiny human, as the man helped her to her feet. Fenrir barked some more and sat between the two of them, waving his tail without a care in the world. “He was fighting with a bigger dog. I was trying to warm him up.”

“You helped him?” the dog leaned against his human’s legs when he begun patting his neck.

“It was nothing.” replied the tiny human, crouching down to pat him, too. Her hands were gentler, and much smaller. “He’s still a pup, isn’t he? He has big paws for that tiny body.”

“I don’t know his age, if you are asking me,” answered his human. “Found him going thro’ the garbage sometime back. I just give him some food and a petting now and then.” Fenrir licked the girl’s face again, happily.  “He like you, di’n he?”

“I guess so.” The other human giggled and tried to evade the licking. “He’s really a doofus. Does he have a name?”

“Nah, never gave ‘im one.” His human crouched next to him, passing an arm over his shoulder. “Say what, little girl, how old are you?”

“I’m twelve.” Replied the smaller human, hesitantly. “Why?”

“Well, as you can see…” He begun coughing, and Fenrir whined, his ears flat against his skull. “‘m not so good as of now.”

“Yes, I can see that.” she tilted her head, thoughtful. “And?”

“I guess I’d kinda be a tad more at ease if I wouldn’t be letting he all alone, you know?” Fenrir let the girl pull him back towards her, settling his head against her knee. “You reckon you could feed one more mouth?”

“You’re giving him to me?” The arms around him close in tighter. “Really?”

“Heh, you seem like you need ‘im more than I do, kid.”

Fenrir never saw his first human again after that. But to begin loving Loki was easy, fast and forever. She was different from his old human. He had been strong, and bigger and mostly just wanted him around. His new human was more like a puppy – and it didn’t took him too long to realize that she actually _was_ a puppy.

“This is where I’m staying for now,” she told him, one hand resting in his head, patting a three trunk. He took his time to sniff it. “I guess you can’t climb it. I _could_ use magic to pull you up, but it couldn’t be terribly comfortable…” there was a pause. “Well, it’s still not that cold. I guess we can sleep down here when it gets colder, we can bundle together. We don’t need to worry about people bothering us,” she begun guiding him away from the tree. “I will freeze to death anyone who harms you.”

Fenrir watched, curiously, as the girl approached the tree again. “Bibi! Come down! There’s someone you have to meet!” he tilted his head as a cat climbed down the tree into the tiny human’s arms. “Fenrir, this is Bitteline. Bibi for the family.” she told him, slowly sinking to her knees in front of him. “She’s my friend, so you two _have_ to get along. That means _no scratching!”_ she added, sternly, pointing a finger at the cat. “And you can’t frighten her, Fenrir. She’s smaller than you, so you have to be careful.”

Carefully, the dog sniffed the cat. It was an ugly thing, and it eyed him with suspicion and animosity. Fenrir had only seen cats from far away before. They made a lot of noise, but they had never bothered him before. He threw himself on his back happily, not minding this new addition very much.

“See, Bibi?” said the tiny human, and the glee in her voice was palpable. “He’s family, now. So you two get along.” she put the cat down and sat cross-legged. “With the three of us in the Hunt, you’ll see how many Grief Seed we’ll get. IC can’t get to us: we’ll be _fine.”_

Not too long after that, Fenrir was tagging along with her new human and Bibi as they Hunted. He was confused about many things – what were those things they searched and killed, why sometimes Loki looked so sad, or why she hated the weird-looking black cat – but one thing he knew for sure, deep in his bones, engraved in his very soul.

He had to protect Loki. Had to protect his puppy.

She needed him, and he understood that. He stayed by her when she did that strange crying thing humans did, like a puppy yelping. He fought besides her. He tracked the unpleasant, acrid smell the monsters left behind. He attacked the weird-looking black cat when it came too close to her. And at night he curled around her and around Bibi and kept an ear out for any unwelcome visitors.

And another ear out especially for Piper.

He had met Piper not long after meeting her new human. Loki had seemed distraught, and suspicious at this another tiny human, but Fenrir and Bibi knew, maybe before she did, that the girl was not afraid of the new human.

Bibi loved Fenrir as much as she loved Loki, the two of them in complete agreement when it came to protect their human. But Bibi also hated all the other humans beside Loki – Fenrir didn’t. He had loved Piper as his puppy had, and had protected her, too, cuddled with her on the nights they spent in the human house of hers.

Loosing Piper had hurt him in more than one level. It hurt because he missed Piper. And it hurt because Loki missed Piper.

“We’ll be fine.”

He licked her cheek and buried his nose in her neck. He would never leave her. Never.


End file.
